19/4/04 Tony Blair personally sanctioned the controversial appointment of Jeffrey John as the next dean of St Albans - which some say is one of the most important jobs in the Church of England reports the Guardian. According to the newspaper the Prime Minister's involvement was part of a Downing Street campaign to warn Anglican leaders that a person's sexuality should not bar them from senior positions. Number 10 officials are understood to have been dismayed by recent Church

Special Report By David W. Virtue The Dean of Christ Church in Arusha, Tanzania, has written a letter to the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church Frank T. Griswold rejecting an offer of funds, citing ECUSA's stand on human sexuality and the recent Robinson consecration. The Very Rev. Jerry A. Kramer, Jr, Diocese of Mt. Kilimanjaro in the Anglican Church of Tanzania, said in his letter to Griswold that his offer to support he and his wife as Volunteers for Mission of the E

By Jane Seyd jseyd@nsnews.com 5/17/2004 A conservative priest at St. Simons Anglican church in North Vancouver says both he and his congregation have quit the Anglican Church of Canada over the issue of same-sex marriage. Ed Hird, the reverend at St. Simons, is one of four conservative priests who recently wrote to Anglican Bishop Michael Ingham telling him his "services as a bishop are no longer required." St. Simons is one of a number of conservative Anglican parishes that

19th April 2004 OXFORD, UK - As some of the leading Northern Anglican theologians gather at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford for a two day discussion on the current crisis in ECUSA, Canada and the wider church, Anglican Mainstream managed to talk to three of the leading Mainstream players in the Anglican Church: Kendall Harmon, Canon Theologian of South Carolina, Dr Paul Zahl, Dean of the Cathedral Church of the Advent, Birmingham Alabama and Dr George Sumner, Principal of Wycliffe Coll

BRITISH EVANGELICALS DECRY JEFFREY JOHN APPOINTMENT Jeffrey John announced as next Dean of St Albans By David Phillips Evangelical News Downing Street announced this morning (Monday 19th April 2004) the appointment of Jeffrey John as the next Dean of St. Albans. The press had leaked the appointment over the weekend. Dr John is a founder member of the group affirming catholicism. Last year his appointment was announced as the Bishop of Reading but he was then persuaded to step

OHIO: Episcopal bishop installed David Briggs Plain Dealer Religion Reporter 4/18/2004 Hundreds of voices sang in hushed reverence Saturday, asking for the coming of the Holy Spirit, as the Venerable Mark Hollingsworth Jr. prepared to be consecrated as the 11th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio. Those in attendance declared earlier in one voice that it was their will to ordain the former archdeacon from Massachusetts, who now was being surrounded by 30 bishops for the a

Church fire ruled arson Blaze destroys sanctuary; no suspects named By Gerald Ensley DEMOCRAT SENIOR WRITER A fire that destroyed a recently controversial Tallahassee church early Friday has been ruled arson, after investigators found evidence of burglary and vandalism. Though police had no suspects Friday, current and former church officials said they don't think the fire was related to their recent dispute. The Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit on Kerry Forest Parkway had

"True Love Waits" Lowers Teen Birth Rate Ethics & Religion by Michael J. McManus Ten years ago Southern Baptist churches began asking their teenagers to sign a "True Love Waits" pledge of chastity. This was derided by groups like Planned Parenthood who argued that it was unrealistic to expect teenagers to remain chaste till marriage. Planned Parenthood's answer is comprehensive sex education which assumed teens would be sexually active, and urged them to have "safe sex" with

African Archbishops reject US cash in gay clergy row By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent THE TELEGRAPH 4/17/2004 African archbishops representing more than half the worldwide Anglican Church are to refuse millions of pounds a year from their US counterparts in protest at its first openly gay bishop. Archbishop Akinola said the church's leaders should be disciplined for allowing a gay bishop to be consecrated. The conservative archbishops, who opposed the consecration of

ANGLICAN JOURNAL April 18, 2004 Delegates to the meeting of General Synod will have a slate of four candidates to choose from for their next primate. The 40 bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada, meeting in Regina for their regular, twice-yearly meeting, nominated five candidates for the primatial election, but one bishop declined the nomination. The candidates are: • Bishop Ronald Ferris, 55, of the diocese of Algoma. Before becoming the ninth bishop of the northern Ontar

We are a group of Anglicans from the Dioceses of Athabasca and Edmonton. We live out our Christian faith in a variety of contexts, yet we find the common ground of our Anglican identity in the Person and Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are united in our commitment to the authority of Holy Scripture and our desire to see the Anglican Church of Canada submit itself willingly to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in every area of its life. In faithfulness to the call of Christ and the teac

"We will not, on the altar of money, mortgage our conscience, mortgage our faith, and mortgage our salvation." Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria Dear Brothers and Sisters, African Anglican Primates meeting in Nairobi this week sent shock waves through the Anglican Communion, but they aimed their sharpest barbs at the US Episcopal Church for its ordination of an avowed homoerotic bishop to the episcopacy. African archbishops intensified the threat to the unity of the worldwi

Tuesday, April 13, 2004 Canterbury Cathedral, Sunday 11 April 2004 [Anglican Communion News Service] A good few years ago, I heard a distinguished American scholar of ancient history commenting on the proclamation of the resurrection as it would have been heard in the classical world. 'If an educated Greek or Roman had been told that someone had been raised from the dead', he said, 'his first question would have been "How do you get him back into his grave again?"'. The point

By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent The Times April 17, 2004 DR JEFFREY JOHN, the gay canon forced to stand down as Bishop of Reading, is to be the next Dean of St Albans in an appointment that will generate shock waves throughout the Anglican Communion. Conservative evangelicals in the Anglican Church, already on the verge of breaking up after the ordination of the gay bishop Gene Robinson in the US and the authorisation of same-sex blessings in Canada, condemned Dr Joh

By David Yonke, Blade Religion Editor The Rev. Mark Hollingsworth, Jr., Episcopal bishop-elect of Ohio, is planning an "inclusionary" consecration service tomorrow in Cleveland in which priests and bishops have been invited to take part in a procession with their wives, husbands, children, and "partners." Processionals at bishops' consecrations normally are reserved for ordained clerics only, and inviting family members marks a break from tradition, church officials said. But

The Los Angeles Chapter of the American Anglican Council today announced plans for a "Plano-West" conference scheduled for Thursday and Friday, June 3-4, 2004 at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center in Long Beach, California. The San Diego Chapter of the AAC will assist AAC-Los Angeles in hosting the gathering. The event, "An Historic Gathering of Anglicans Committed to the Great Commission," is designed as a follow-up to two other meetings of orthodox Episcopal

News Analysis By David W. Virtue The Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold recently went to see Mel Gibson's film, The Passion, depicting the last twelve hours of Jesus' earthly life. He writes in the April issue of Episcopal Life: "Having heard so much about the film, I was quite curious to see what my own reaction would be. I wondered if I would be moved, or repelled by the violence. I also wondered if I would find myself seeing the film at variance with my

Diocese of Central Florida Redirects Funds to Anglican Communion Network Members of the Diocesan Board of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida voted overwhelmingly yesterday to approve a resolution designating funds to the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes. The resolution will be applied retroactively, totaling approximately $20,000 for 2004. Central Florida has formally associated with the Anglican Communion Network and is the first diocese to formally

Gay marriage debate deepens in New Hampshire Church leaders give testimony to House By DANIEL BARRICK Monitor staff 8-14-2004 Two of New Hampshire's top religious leaders - one past, one present - added their voices to the statewide debate on gay marriage yesterday. Retired Episcopal Bishop Douglas Theuner denounced a bill that would keep New Hampshire from recognizing same-sex unions performed elsewhere as "discrimination in the extreme." "What is so insidious about (this bi

News Analysis By Uwe Siemon-Netto UPI Religious Affairs Editor WASHINGTON, April 15 (UPI) -- In the face of the contemporary challenge by radical Islamists, Eastern Orthodoxy and Catholicism are bidding farewell to the hatred caused by the Fourth Crusade exactly 800 years ago. The spiritual leader of the Orthodox faithful formally accepted an apology Pope John Paul II offered in 2001 for the three-day sacking of Constantinople in April 1204. The city, until then the wealthies